Drawer Insert

I have to say, one thing that really bugs me is the tiny drawers you typically find in bathroom vanities.  I mean, I’m a guy and I don’t have very much stuff at all in there and it’s always a cluttered mess and a pain to find stuff.  No matter what house we’ve lived in, it seems that the people who make vanities love to torture people.

So, I decided to do something about it.  I got the idea from an article I read online sometime last year and filed away in my mind…and from the little drawers that I nested in the medal chest I made for my mom.  It’s simple really—two rails support an open box. All I did was make the rails the full length of the drawer, and half as high.  Then I made the box half as deep as the drawer and half as tall.

The drawer measured 19″ long, 7 15/16″ wide and 3″ deep.  So my rails are (1/4″ aspen) 19″ long and 1.5″ high.  The box itself is (again that 1/4″ aspen) 1.5″ tall, 7 3/4″ wide and 9″ long.  Now I can put frequently used stuff in the box and slide it over stuff in the back of the drawer to get to frequently used stuff in the bottom of the front of the drawer.

It’s very simply constructed, just butt joint the sides together and nail, then cut out a 1/8″ thick piece of plywood to fit the bottom, clamp and nail around the edges.  I hit it with the Nice Ash block plane and smoothed out all the corners until it felt comfortable in the hand.  With the light stuff going in it, I wasn’t worried about structural strength at all.  Besides, the bottom stretches across the entire drawer and rests on both rails, so it’s not like something can fall through.  As an added bonus I got to use the little ball peen hammer I resurrected from the family tool chest!  Although all the vinegar I used to remove the rust has made the handle a bit…off.  It feels tacky in the hand and just not nice.  So I think it needs to go.  Another project!  Ah….but back to the one at hand…

Confused?  Here’s some pics.

Below is a shot of the drawer with just the rails installed:

Next I place the little insert in and….

Whaddya know, it holds the big bulky stuff that was usually in the back and making a mess out of everything else.  But, with the flick of a wrist, the drawer slides to the back and I can still get to the other stuff I normally use:

As you can see from the pics above, I still need to attach the rails to the sides of the drawer—I have tiny little nails for that, shouldn’t take more than 3 per side I think.  I hit the rails (and all the parts, actually) with the hand planes before installation so everything is nice and glassy smooth and square.

Once I put some wax on the rails the little drawer will really glide (it already does, but it should work even better with wax).  I think, start to finish, this project took about an hour.

[Medal Chest] It’s Done!

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

No, there are no bells and whistles on this thing—if Mom wants to put some in it, more power to her.  I built it, she can use it however she wants.

But to finish it, I had to do three things yet: (1) install the latch mechanism, (2) install the hinges, and (3) install the little rails that the inner boxes will rest on, making the interior storage double.

I went back to the chisels, traced the fancy looking hing design on the back of the chest where I wanted them and started chopping and carving (those little carving tools I used on the basswood worked great on the maple too!).  After about 30 minutes, I had to perfect hinge mortises cut out of the maple:It was surprisingly easy to get those complicated shapes with the carving chisels.  I started at the bottom where it was circular and used an appropriately sized Forstner bit in the drill to make the hole the right depth.  Once that was there, I just chopped out the rectangular part (at the top) and then used the curved little carving chisels to pare out the curved and sharp cornered bits.  I was expecting it to be really really hard, but only moderately so.  Sharp tools do indeed make all the difference.

Anyway, once the hinge mortises were done, I flipped the box over and installed the latch mechanism.  I don’t know what it’s called, but it has two little rollers that seem to spring open and lock on a spear shaped piece that is mounted to the lid.  This was much more simple than the hinges: just trace it where you want it and cut out the rectangle of wood.

The hard part?  I couldn’t get the mallet inside the box with the chisel to generate force like I could with the hinge mortises.  I had to rely totally on hand power to take tiny little slices of wood off with the chisel.  It took as long as it did to do two hinge mortises.  Here’s the result:

I did a test fit to make sure everything works.  The little six inch gnomon makes a hand lid prop.  Note on the underside of the lid, you can see the spear latch catch I mentioned above: Now that the hardware was installed, the next thing was to line the inside of the lid.  I had planned to remove the lid anyway because I’ll be shipping the box (I know…talk about worry…I’m going to trust this to FedEx?  Savage baggage master?) and don’t want the lid and/or hinges to get damaged by a shearing blow to the packing box.  Having the lid off made it easier to line with felt too.

I chose another color from FSU, gold.  This was even easier than lining the box—I chose to fit and cut the felt first, then spray the back of the felt and drop into place.  It was a little dicey because there was no smooth surface—everything was angles because I didn’t smooth out the inside of the lid (I knew I’d be covering it, so why bother?).   Here’s the result:

Not too bad, eh?

Okay, that left putting in the little rails for the inner boxes.  Nothing to see here, really.  Just two parallel square dowels nailed down with tiny 3/4″ brads to the inside of the box, about 3″ up from the floor.  When the inner boxes (trays really) sit on the rails, the tops are flush with the top of the box.  Sitting on the rails allows them to slide left and right and easily be taken out as well to access the bottom of the chest.

And there you have it!  One complete medal chest, complete with carvings.  I’m shipping it south to Florida for a surprise for Mom.  When we visit there later this month, I’ll get better pictures, complete with medals for a Project Complete post.

I don’t know what was harder—the actual building process (this is my first real, finished piece) or packaging it up and giving to the guy behind the counter at the shipping place.  It was hard to let go.  I sure hope it gets there in one piece!

[Medal Chest] Finishing the Chest in Shellac

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

This last stage was probably the most fun, the least amount of work, and yielded the most obvious results.  After going over (one last time) everything with 220 grit sand paper by hand, I was ready to vacuum all the dust off of the wood, attach the feet and start shellacking this thing.

I chose spray shellac in a clear (which is actually called “blonde” due to the very faint yellow color it imparts on the lighter woods).  I applied 8 coats each to the little boxes and 6 coats to the base and lid.  It used up the entire can.

The great thing about shellac is how fast it dries if you use thin coats in the right environment.  It’s been raining and cold here for weeks.  But the day I sprayed, it was mostly cloudy, about 60° and had a very gentle westerly breeze.  Perfect.

I set up out on the porch, with the pieces on foam insulation to protect the deck and house, and started spraying.  Every 8 minutes I added another coat.  Why 8 minutes?  Because the can said 15.  I sprayed and waited 15 the first time.  The wood was bone dry.  So the next time I waited 10 minutes.  Again, bone dry.  Then I tried 8 minutes.  It was dry, but you could tell it had just dried.  So thereafter, I sprayed in 8 minute intervals.

This took from mid morning through about 4pm—I sanded with 400 grit sandpaper on the next to last coat and got a nice glossy smooth surface on everything for the last coat.  As I put the empty can in the trash, I noticed I had finished (get it?) right when the clouds darkened and the next round of 3-day soakers rolled in.  I closed up the garage after the last coat dried and packed everything up—the shellacking was complete!

The next day, I went out to the garage and buffed everything with the old brown paper bag trick.  Here’s the result:

Everything has a nice glossy, soft (yet hard) smooth finish to it and feels wonderful.  And that shellac made the grain (especially the walnut) just explode.  I love it!

[Medal Chest] Lining With Felt

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

Once the lid was read for finishing, I decided to add feet to the box to give it a little better look.  Just sitting on the ground wasn’t doing it for me.  I settled on little wooden wheels I got from Michael’s for another project that I can’t even remember now.

They will be attached with brass woodscrews through the bottom corners of the box.

Like so.

Next it was time to do the felt lining.  I don’t want Mom’s hard won medals just rattling around down there on the plywood bottom and maple and walnut sides.  So I got some maroon felt and sprayed adhesive on the bottom, then put it down and trimmed it to size:

Then I did the same with the two little boxes (remember them?  They’ve been sitting under the workbench for over week now just waitnig…).  Here they are just before I lined them with the maroon (one of the colors from Florida State University, Mom’s alma mater):

I’m getting close now…I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sure hope it isn’t a train…

[Medal Chest] The Lid, or, No Tablesaw? No Problem!

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

**Oh yeah, this post actually is the result of 6 days in the workshop—some didn’t have pictures and I didn’t want to bore you with just text, so I put it all together under the title of The Lid**

At last, we come to the critical juncture of the project.  I designed a curved lid, rather like a low treasure chest.  But whether or not I would be able to build said lid was another story.  As a result, I had in the back of my mind an alternate plan: build a flat top lid like Peter Follansbee and use peg and dowel hinges.

But first I had to attempt my original design.  It called for 6 pieces of 3/4″ maple ripped to 2″ wide and 18″ long.  On each piece, to achieve a nice gentle arc no higher than 2″ in the middle of the lid, I had to slice off 2.5° each long edge.

First I had to rip 6 skinny planks.  I drew the lines and set up the 8ft plank on the bench.  Using my Japanese saw, I cross cut the first 18″ section about an inch long for good measure.  Then I set that up with a clamped straight edge and got out the circular saw…which promptly started to bind and burn wood after about 4 inches.  Maybe it was the way I was trying to clamp it—maybe it was the rigid foam insulation I had under it to protect the bench, maybe it was my technique, maybe ti was the saw.  Whatever the cause, I had had enough after 15 minutes of sweating and cursing.

I clamped the 19″ stock in my leg vise and hacked it apart with the trusty old carpenter’s saw I got for free from Menard’s last year.  I love rebates.  And free tools.

About 40 sweaty minutes later I was ready for a beer.  But, I had 6 planks ripped from that soft maple.  Who the hell are they kidding?  That maple is anything but soft!

Thus endeth day one.  So far so good.

The next day, tired and sore from my workout with the maple, I got ready to plane angles using the new WoodRiver plane.  But first, I had to go through and square up every plank from my hacking them out of that 8ft board.

So, I turned on the radio and hitched up the lid planks to the workbench and started planing.  And planing…and planing.  But it was fun.  The WoodRiver jack plane really made short work of that maple.  It was remarkable how easy it was to slide that beast over the wood and leave a glass smooth surface with perfectly perpendicular edges.

It took about an hour to true up all the planks and get them to the correct dimensions.  Here’s part of the mess left behind:

On the third day, I had to start planing the 2.5° angle off each side.  Easy enough.  I drew out the angle on a piece of paper.  Transfered that to the bevel guage, then put that up to the wood and traced the angle on the end.  If I had a tablesaw, it would be a matter of seconds—line up the fence, tilt the blade, run the plank through.   Done.

But alas, a tablesaw is something I (a) don’t have and (b) don’t have the space for.  So I had to look to my handheld table saw—no, not the circular saw.  That already failed.  I’m talking hand planes, baby.  Old school.

I simply put the plank on the bench, nestled up to the planing stop and starting planing at an angle until I got it right.  It took no more than 5 minutes per side, per plank.

At the end of the day, here’s what I had—4 inner planks, angled correctly, starting to form the arch.

I realized I’d have to trim them to length later.  I just wanted to get the arch done first.  That left the front and rear planks.  These were angled up pretty quick.  Then it was time for a test fit.  I taped them all up with painters tape and took the assembled lid over to the box and put it together:

It’s finally starting to look like my design!!!  But, you can see the issue—the front (and rear) lip of the lid is angled too steep and makes the lid look unnatural.  So…I measured out lines on where I needed to trim the first and last planks.  That would make the lid drop and sit flush with the top of the box.

But how to cut this?  The little angles on the sides were nothing—just a mere shaving with the plane.  But now we’re talking about 1/4″ chunk of wood that needs to be removed.  Again…if I had a tablesaw, it’d be no challenge at all.  But, I’m rocking this old school so I turned to the new plane to prove itself yet again.

First, I needed some way to hold the plank.  I couldn’t simply rest it on the bench like I did the first time.  The new angle was too steep and it kept falling over.  So, I took out the chisels and hacked out the right angle I needed to support the plank (and let me plane flat down) out of a 2×4:

Here it is on end, with the mark of where I need to slice to on the plank:

This was about 15 minutes into the planing…after another 15 minutes, I had one plank right at the line:

Smooth as glass and accurate to boot.  I took a break for a drink of water and hit the other plank (thank goodness there were only two…this was quite the workout).  After those two were trimmed, I set up the miter saw and cut all the lid planks to length.  It took only a few minutes and got them all within sanding distance of even.  Then, at the end of the day it was another dry fit:

Success!  That fits much better.  I glued up the planks and called it a day.  To glue them up, I simply opened the tape and kept the planks edges touching.  Spread in the glue, roll them up and wrap in tape—it looked exactly like the picture above.  It’s a trick that I’ve seen on so many websites and in every magazine that I can’t really quote a source.  Here’s one to give you the general idea, from Popular Woodworking.

Next up was the sides of the top.  I planned on using the last of the walnut to extend the sides of the box up to be curved and support the planks of the lid.  Here’s how I did it.  First, I rigged up the scrollsaw and cut rough curves out of the walnut to match the curve of the lid.  I set the lid on end and traced the interior line of the planks on each side panel as well.

Break out the chisels, it’s time to work.  I hacked through half the width of the walnut following the inner template and got this:

This is a progress shot of the left side, halfway done.  You can see the inner lip there—that will support the left end of the lid.  My plan is then to sand the outer lip curve down to be flush with the upper edge of the lid.

When I needed a break (chiseling that much walnut was not easy) I began sanding the lid to make a nice smooth curve.  To do this, I started with the random orbital sander on 100 grit.  After all the sharp edges were off, I hit it with 150 grit.  Then I switch to hand power and used 220 grit sand paper.  When everything was nearly there and I could only just feel the raised edges of the individual planks, I took it to the belt sander.  Polished it by hand again with 220 and then 400 grit sand paper and here’s the result:

Then I put it on the box again to check how it looked:

Getting there…but the box was missing something…

That’s it!  Some very fine mahogany strips (1mm thick by 5mm wide) leftover from my USS Independence model I built in law school.  Mitered with a chisel (lol) and glued with super glue, they made a nice little border around the carving, that really makes it pop.

Okay, back to the lid sides…I got both of them done and sized:

and then glued them up:

Once the glue dried I was able to hit the whole lid with the belt sander, orbital sander and hand sander to get a nice smooth surface.  At this point it felt like my arms were going to fall off and I called the lid a success.

[Medal Chest] Router Inlay

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

Today’s task was to fit the completed carving into the front panel of the box.  To do this, I decided to mark out the area I needed and use the router my dad donated to the shop last October.  It felt good to use this old workhorse, considering he used it to make a toybox on wheels for me when I was 2 that not only still exists, but now houses toys for my son in the basement.

I carefully looked at ideas on how to proceed from around the internet, and settled on Kari’s once more.  Her work is just plain inspiring.  So, with that in mind, I set off to imitate her…hopefully.  Maybe.

Since I was starting to feel the time crunch (mid-April is only weeks away now), I opted to forego the hand tools only and broke out the powah routah.  First I drew pencil lines on the front panel and got the carving exactly where I wanted it.   Then I took a Forstner bit in my drill and chewed down about 1/8″ (the final depth I was shooting for since the basswood “plaque” is only 1/4″ thick).

This was so I have a spot to start the router.  It’s not a plunge router, so the hole had to be started so I don’t chew the whole thing up trying to get going.  At least, that’s what it looked like in my mind.

When I put the router up on the wood and was about to pull the trigger, I realized that I couldn’t see the layout lines for [insert expletive here].  So, off comes the router and one goes the blue painters tape, cinched in just a hair inside the layout lines (I would be thanking myself for this in a few minutes  to make sure I didn’t go beyond where I wanted.  This is only the 2nd time I’ve used a router, by the way…

Right, time to rout.  I got the necessary safety gear and cranked ‘er up and within a minute or two, this is what I had (besides a nice pile of sawdust and wood chips):

As you can see in the bottom right corner, I went a tad be over the blue tape line when I got too excited about how easy the router was cutting the wood and it kind of got away from me.  Like I said above, I thanked myself for the tape because once peeled off, that little boo-boo was right on the layout line.  No harm, no foul.

Next, I took my chisels and Kroktskaft and went to town.  Gonna have to get me some full size chisels because the mallet dwarfs every tool I have right now…anyhoo, the chisels made surprisingly easy work of chopping through the maple and getting the router’s leavings cleaned up and ship shape.  Here’s what I had after 15 minutes:You can see the size difference between the mallet and the chisel….and the square chopped out of the maple ain’t too bad either.  Now for a test fit.Like a glove!  I think this is my favorite part of the whole project so far.  I love how that carving turned out and it’s got me really excited to carve more in the future.

Okay, so after patting myself on the back for a while, I took the plank and the carving and went inside to glue up (the garage is still only about 40° right now and it takes glue forever to dry so I just bring stuff inside).  Here is the finalized front panel, ready for assembly:

And now, there’s nothing left but the lid and finishing.  Gulp.  The curved lid that I had so brazenly designed now stared me in the face and grinned, beckoning me to my doom.  Awesome.   Not today, but soon.  Because I have more work to do.

Heh.  ’Cause I forgot to add the bottom.   After playing with the Kreg Jig for over an hour—I mean actually playing…it was fun!—the bottom was finally attached.  Now the chest box was actually complete.

[Medal Chest] Relief carving is good for the soul.

*Note to my readers—this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times.  It has consumed my shop time since February.  That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months.  Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details.*

I just love relief carving.  It’s so relaxing.  And it’s pretty comfortable on the mini-bench too.  Though I will look into making an angled piece to hold the work so I don’t have to crane my neck over the work.  My neck gets a little sore spending a few hours doing this… But that’s nothing a cold beer at the end of the day can’t fix.

Here’s the latest progress shot: